Bilvavi Part 6 - Chapter 11 Thought As Reality

A fundamental point we should know is that we need to get used to gaining a deep perspective on everything.

The truth is that what we think of as “simple” matters are actually the deepest matters possible. In order to truly recognize even simple matters, we need to ponder them deeply. We need to think deeply into a matter until we arrive at its inner point.

Our mind aids us in thinking deeply. A person is made up of body and soul; from the body’s perspective, our thoughts seem like imagination, not reality. Our thoughts don’t seem to be tangible. Thought is a spiritual force, and it is a power of our soul. When a person’s body has jurisdiction over him, thoughts seem to be something hidden and intangible. Although everyone knows that we are always thinking, not everyone views thoughts as something real. The reason for this is really because there are actually different kinds of thoughts, as we will soon explain.

By nature, our soul is more hidden from us, and therefore our thoughts, which are a spiritual power in our soul, are also hidden to us. The thoughts which we experience are a small illumination that radiates from our very soul, and the more we reveal the soul, the higher quality thoughts we will experience.

The neshamah is called seichel, intellect. However, the comprehension that our neshamah can give to us is very far from regular human intellect. It is a very hidden kind of comprehension.

The neshamah is pure spirituality. When a person is thinking about money or something materialistic, such thoughts do not reveal the neshamah’s thinking. Even if a person is thinking about something spiritual, such as learning Torah or doing Avodas Hashem, it can still be the same regular thinking he is used to, just that it is being used for a spiritual purpose. So it can be that a person is used to thinking about what he learns in the Torah, but the thoughts he is using don’t come from his neshamah.

When the neshamah’s thoughts remain hidden in a person, all of a person’s thoughts are material kind of thoughts. Non-Jews can also think a lot - a Jew who thinks a lot might just be like a very intellectual non-Jew. The fact that he thinks a lot doesn’t mean that he is very spiritual.

You can even have a person who always thinks holy thoughts, yet the quality of his thoughts is at the same level as a secular person’s thoughts (although there is no doubt that such thinking can definitely awaken and strengthen him to better himself).

If a person never reaches the root point of his thoughts, he never arrives at true concentration. A person can only concentrate with this mind when he is connected to the root of his mind, in which there is a unification of the thoughts.

When the root of thought is hidden from a person, his thinking comes from his body, and he cannot use such thinking for Avodas Hashem. The deeper thoughts come from a higher world, while the thoughts of our body come from the lowest world (asiyah\action), and thus our regular thoughts cannot be used as a tool to work with spiritual matters.

This is why it is hard to arrive at true concentration with our thoughts. We can see this very manifest when we daven, when people try to concentrate, and they just can’t gather their thoughts together. The same goes for learning Torah – people have a hard time concentrating as they learn. But suddenly when it comes to other matters, people have no trouble staying focused; what is the reason for this? It is because spiritual matters require a deeper kind of concentration than what we are used to.

The root of this lack of focus is because when a person hasn’t yet revealed the root of his thoughts, the deeper thoughts of the neshamah remain hidden, and he cannot open up his power to stay concentrated - even on a simple spiritual matter.

Of course, there is an external solution that people have for this, and that is to train oneself to be able to concentrate. This can help somewhat, but it is a secular approach, and it is not the Torah way.

A Jew searches for the root, and from there he is nurtured. We aren’t trying to “train” ourselves and teach ourselves tricks to learn how to stay focused. We are trying to the reach the G-dliness in us, and from there, we can learn to unify our thoughts.

Entering A World of Real Thought

What can we do to reveal our root power of thought?

The Ramchal (in sefer Derech Eitz Chaim) writes that it is the way of the wise to always think, wherever they go. A person is a thinker. Who doesn’t always think? We are always thinking; the only question is what we are always thinking.

There are people who think all the time, yet there is no connection between their thoughts. They are one second thinking about Torah, and then a second later they are thinking about something materialistic. Their thoughts are just fleeting.

Others have succeeded in concentrating their thoughts to think only about Torah. When we see these people who are connected in their thoughts all the time to Torah, or about serving Hashem, or about being close to Him all the time - it is not simply because they have trained themselves to think like that. It is because these people have reached a deep place in which thought is a very tangible reality, no less than how a physical action is tangible.

In the physical world we live in, we can only feel something physical. But the Vilna Gaon said that this is only a result of the sin of Adam. Before the sin, only spirituality was tangible, and physicality was actually not tangible.

Because we have a body, we can only feel something physical. But our soul feels a thought in a very tangible sense (especially those souls which are rooted in a higher world, “Beriah). It is just that we have to reveal our soul from its potential state, into its active state.

In other words, our aim here is not to sharpen our power of concentration. Our job here is to realize that our thoughts are a tangible reality, no less than how we view this physical world as real. We are not changing anything here – we are simply revealing something that’s already here. It is hidden, but it definitely exists.

The more a person connects to Torah – which Chazal say is called the “soul of the world” – the more a person is connected to the reality of thought.

Torah is called “our life.” This is not simply that the Torah gives us life – it is more than that: Torah is reality itself! What we think is tangible on this physical world is really a lie. The realm of the intellect can be felt in a tangible sense, and it is no less real than the physical.

So what we must first clarify to ourselves is that it is not out job here to learn how to concentrate with our thoughts. It is rather about entering a world in which thought is very real.

The Sixth Sense

Let us give an example that brings out the concept we are saying.

We have five physical senses – touch, sight, smell, hearing, and taste. From all of the senses, the sense of the smell is the most spiritual, but all of the senses enable us to feel something physical. Already from our physical senses we can see that some of our senses are more spiritual than others. Our sense of touch is the least spiritual, while our senses of hearing and smell are perceived by us to be more spiritual than the sense of touch, which is a more gruff kind of sense. We can recognize clearly that our sense of smell is a whole different kind of sense than the sense of touch, that it’s a whole different kind of perception.

This is not in our imagination; no one doubts this. When we hear a sound, we are not imagining the sound, even though we can’t touch it or see it; we are definitely aware that the sound exists, in a tangible way, through our sense of hearing. So we can all admit to this a bit from our physical world, that there are some senses which are more spiritual – such as how our senses of hearing and smell are more spiritual kinds of senses than the senses of touch and sight. Maybe we can’t feel a sound with our hands, but we can definitely sense a sound and feel it as tangible.

This can show us that our power of thought is no less real and tangible than our senses of smell and hearing. Our thought is a whole different kind of sense, but it is still a sense – and it is the most spiritual kind of sense there is.

This is the first fact we should be clear in – though is a reality, no less real than a table or a chair.

This is already written in sefer Shaarei Kedushah, of Rav Chaim Vital: a person should not dismiss his thoughts as something that isn’t real. Our thoughts are active, and they can do things no less than how a knife can cut meat. The only difference between our thoughts and our other senses is that our five senses can be tangibly felt through this physical world, while our sense of thought is something that affects a different world – the world of our thoughts.

Rav Chaim Vital writes that because of this, our thoughts can ascend to the Heavens, and this can become a tangible experience for a person. The sefarim hakedoshim describe the concept of souls that can ascend to the Heavens; this is not experienced through one’s fantasies, but through one’s actual thoughts. It is a total reality, and it can be experienced through one’s thoughts.

The Sages[2] say that “lewd thoughts are worse than the sin itself.” From this we can learn that just as the action of a sin has effects, so does sinful thoughts have an effect on a person. The Nefesh HaChaim (I:4) even writes that if someone thinks about committing a sin, it is as if he brought an idol into the Beis HaMikdash. This is not just a parable – it’s an actual reality that happens. An idol brought in the Beis HaMikdash on the physical world is evil because it’s an evil act; a sinful thought is no less evil, because it’s an existing reality of something evil taking place - in the realm of thought.

The truth is that our inner world of serving the Creator involves abilities that are even beyond our thoughts. But since we are speaking about the roots of our inner work, it is necessary for us to realize this preliminary stage, which is to realize what our thoughts are, and how to use them. A person has to know that thoughts are not imagination; they are an existing reality called thought, and they must not be dismissed as nothing. Without knowing this, a person will not succeed in his avodah. If one realizes that his thoughts can indeed do things and have effects, then he should realize the following: we must never stop thinking, not even for a moment.

These matters are simply and clear to anyone who has entered the inner world of avodah. They are far from anyone who remains outside these matters.

This is the fundamental point which we need to enter into the inner world of avodah: we must totally believe that the world of thought is real and tangible.

Belief In The Concept Of Thought Enables It To Have Effects

What can help us believe that thoughts are a tangible reality?

We need to believe that we are revealing the potential of this concept. If we don’t believe in a matter, then the matter remains dormant, and while it still exists, it remains inactivated. We need to reveal the potential of every concept. This is true when it comes to everything, but it is especially true with regards to the subject we are discussing, which is to believe in the reality of our thoughts.

The only issue is how we can bring out the potential of our thoughts; how we actually go about revealing the power of our thoughts from their hidden state. We mentioned this in the beginning of the chapter.

The external part of our job here is to concentrate more with our thoughts. But we also have more inner work to do here, and that is to use our emunah. Our emunah must accompany us throughout any step. Since we are currently discussing how we can bring out the potential of our thoughts – to reveal the thoughts forth from their hidden state – we need to strengthen our emunah, both in our heart and mind. We need to strengthen the belief that thoughts are a reality, and that they are no less real than something physical you see. In fact, thoughts are more real than the physical world you see.

We do not yet have total emunah; there will not be total emunah in the world until the year 10,000. But the more we reveal our emunah, the stronger our thoughts will become – our emunah can fuel on our reality of the thought.

If a person would really believe that that his thoughts can have actual effects, it would really work the way it should. If a person doesn’t believe in the effect that his thoughts can have, then his thoughts will indeed not do anything.

This is well-known concept in our sefarim hakedoshim: in order for anything to work, a person has to be there; if a person isn’t there in the concept, he doesn’t access a concept.

Let’s take an example from the physical world for this. In order to get a car started, you have to turn the key in the ignition. Now, if you’re not in the car seat to begin with, then you’re not there, and you can’t even get started.

The same goes for spiritual matters. You have to there in order to access any of these matters. The only difference between the physical world and the spiritual world is that with the physical world, you use physical actions to get things done; but in the spiritual world, you don’t use physical actions to get things done – you use your thoughts.

If a person really believes that he can indeed be found in a world of thought, then he will be able to use his thoughts and access their power. If a person doesn’t believe that he can be there, then indeed, he will not access the power of his thoughts.

Thought Is The Basis of the Inner World

We will try to open up this concept a bit more.

The Ramchal writes[3] that when a person receives ruach hakodesh, the lower kind of ruach hakodesh is that it comes to his as a thought, and he is unaware that it is being poured down from above. The higher kind of ruach hakodesh is that a person is aware that the thought is coming from a different place.

What we see from this is that just like you use your hands to receive an item, so can you use your thoughts to receive something spiritual.

It is brought in the sefarim hakedoshim that there were tzaddikim who were able to read others’ thoughts and tell them what they were thinking. How did they do this? It is because just as your eyes see the physical, so can a person’s thoughts see other thoughts in a tangible way.

This is not an exaggeration.

The depth of our avodah is built upon understanding that our thoughts are real. From a superficial perspective, it appears that our avodah is based upon how much of a will we have to inspire ourselves and to gain levels, how much we daven to Hashem, how elated we feel, etc. But all of these things are just externalities in our avodah. The inner layer of our avodah is to realize what our soul can do – each of our soul’s abilities, and how we use them. We have to know how to use different abilities in our soul and not confuse different abilities, just like you can’t use a washing machine in the same way you use a dryer.

Avodas Hashem is not something we use our hands for, and we can’t even use our emotions for it. Our entire Avodas Hashem can only happen if we use our power of thought. In order to use our thoughts, we have to realize what this power is – what its structure is, and what lays hidden in it. We must know what is holding it back from being revealed, and what we can do to reveal it.

The more a person recognizes something, the better he will know how to use it. Imagine a person driving a car who doesn’t know what anything means on the dashboard; he won’t be able to use the car at all. With just a small amount of effort, he would be able to figure out it out and be helped.

The more we understand what power that is found in us, the more we can access it and succeed with it. We won’t be able to access any power that we don’t recognize well.

So the way to enter our inner Avodas Hashem is by revealing our power of thought. The way to access this power, as we mentioned before, is by totally believing that it exists.

A Jew’s Power of Thought

Let us say a point which expands upon this concept. There is a dispute in the Gemara when the world was created – Nissan, or Tishrei. Tosafos[4] brings that in Tishrei, it “dawned upon the thoughts” of Hashem to create the world.

What does this mean? It didn’t take Hashem half a year to create the world. What this statement means is that there is a power in a Jew’s soul to use our thoughts.

Chazal also say that the word “Beraishis” (“in the beginning”) means “for the sake of the Jewish people, who are called “raishis” (the beginning). Targum adds to this that we were created with chochmah, wisdom. This is the essence of a Jew: wisdom.

A Jew lives in a whole different world than a gentile’s world. Besides for the fact that we are commanded to be a sanctified nation, we are also living in a total different reality than a gentile’s reality. Our reality is that we have a certain power of thought. A Jew who utilizes his power of thought isn’t just gaining another quality – he’s tapping into his essence. The fact that we were created with a power of thought isn’t just another part of Creation. It is a creation unto itself, and it preceded the actual Creation.

We can bring many more statements in Chazal that open up this concept more, but one thing is clear: our thoughts can have actual, tangible effects. (The Ramban has written about this as well in a famous letter). This is a Jew’s power, and it is our essence to be this way.

When a person realizes that thought is his reality, he is then able to connect to the power of thought – the root creation which preceded all creations; and he will be able to access the power of thought.

If a person really wants to succeed in his Torah learning and Avodas Hashem, he needs to reveal his belief that the reality of thought exists. May Hashem help us clarify these matters in our souls, and that each Jew should merit to reveal the point we have been describing here.